To My Home
by Aliandry
Summary: Sniper's parents finally come to terms with Sniper's job... Or not. And Spook is... well, being Spook. Sniper/Spy
1. Chapter 1

He had never been good at lying.

"No! I just wanted him to- Will you let me finish?"

Because he couldn't deal with the consequences.

"Mom, I think I'm old enough to take care of me'self!" Sniper said angrily. His voice was quavery, showing just how bothered he was with the conversation at hand. "It's just what I do, a'right?"

He'd been dreading this conversation since he sent that god damned post card. He hoped that his mother would simply tell his father the little 'white lie' and be done with it. That should take care of the problems.

That, or she'd be even more worried.

"No, mom. Mom-" he leaned a bit more against the telephone pole in defeat, pulling his hat to cover his eyes from the harsh mid day sun "-I meant tell dad that. Not tell him I wrote to you to tell him about- Ah, blasted." he stopped his explanation when he heard the phone being passed over to someone else.

For a few second he just stood there, apparently carefully listening to the conversation, until he almost threw the phone at the pole when a series of curses could be heard clearly through it.

He waited until the yelling subsided and picked the phone again, hands shaking a bit.

"Dad-" he stared at the cable connecting the phone to the pole for a few seconds, his tongue coming out to moisten his lips. "Listen, you and mom just have to understand that I do what I do. Nothing's gonna change that." He paused, and when his father didn't yell at him he continued "It's my life dad, I'm a grown man."

Of course, he didn't expect that excuse to stick, it never did. Usually it made his family even angrier. So it was with some surprise that he heard his father's next words.

"You want me to... What?" he looked dumbly in the direction of the BLU base for a few seconds. "Of course I have vacation time..." he listened attentively, occasionally hearing his mother's voice on the other side.

His parents wanted him to visit.

Being a bushman, as the others called him, he enjoyed his freedom greatly, even to the point of living outside the headquarters and keeping a certain distance from his teammates. But that didn't stop him from missing his parents, specially since he'd been forbidden to even be near their house. They didn't want a crazed gunman near them, and whatever problems he might bring.

His mother had been the one to keep contact with him after his parents found out about his 'profession', missing her little boy maybe a tad too much. Over the years it had been like that. The occasional job, the letters and phone calls, and with time, even his father returned them. It's as if nothing much had happened. Except for the fact that he still couldn't go see them.

Apparently until now.

"Of course!" He replied, maybe a bit too enthusiastically. "...in two weeks I guess." he did the math in his head. BLU allowed them a week of break from the 'war'. It might have been strange to do so, if they didn't have a 9 to 5 'work schedule' already.

His father told him he wanted to speak with him personally, which made Sniper's gut clench in anticipation and dread. That certainly did not bode well. His mother kept trying to take part in the conversation too, but when she did manage to get on the phone, it'd be to ask random motherly things, such as 'have they be'n feeding ya well?' or even the 'have you made any new friends?' which made Sniper mumble a few 'yes's and hope that Spy didn't have bugs in this phone, or that if he did, that he'd keep to himself.

Finally ending the phone call, he stood there for a few seconds, trying to come up with plausible reasons for such a strange conversation. Had something happened? Maybe a dead relative. He didn't keep track on other family members.

Figuring best to get his mind of such things, he turned in the direction of his 'van', ready to return. Though he was stopped short by a very light scrapping sound coming from behind him. He frowned, hand going for his kukri.

"_How heartwarming..._"


	2. Chapter 2

"Piss."

"Now, zhat iz no way to talk to a teammate _Monsieur_..." the smartly dressed man said. He had appeared a few meters away from where Sniper was originally standing and had probably been there for a while, which meant he had heard most, if not the whole conversation.

"It is, if he's going to be meddlin' in other's personal business!" he said infuriated. He had never gotten along with Spy, which, according to the others was perfectly normal. He'd figured out pretty soon that no one really liked the man... much at least.

His teammate simply looked a bit to the side, feinting annoyance, before speaking again. "But _Monsieur_! It iz standard procedure. Specially when one receives contact from hiz parents so frequently." The Frenchman finished with a smirk, clearly mocking him. "You might have been, oh I do not know, giving away BLU's secrets. Zis iz war, after all."

Sniper gritted his teeth. Bloody spook was probably messin' with him. He'd never heard of this so called 'procedure', though it did make sense, in a way. Not that he was a traitor, he'd leave that to the spies, he was professional after all, he had standards. "I'll only say this once more, mind yer own business spook, or you'll end up with more holes in ya than that balaclava!"

The damn spy had the indecency to look surprised at his outburst. He figured none of his teammates really knew his personality, and had no idea how he'd react to certain things. The spook didn't know any better. The surprise shone off spy's eyes fast enough, and his face became unreadable again, but Sniper could tell, he was uncomfortable this time.

"Tireur, zhere iz really no need for such..." he seemed to think about what to say next. "Zhiz is standard procedure. I am not telling lies." he grabbed a cigar, lit it up and put it in his mouth, not actually smoking it.

"I'll talk to Soldier..." He bluffed. The spook really seemed to be serious now, but he wanted to see the other man's reaction nevertheless.

Spy narrowed his eyes "Hm, zhen do as you wish. I will not bother you." He gave an indignant 'uff' and promptly disappeared. Sniper could hear the other's footsteps getting near him, the cigar smell getting stronger as they were side by side. He almost expected Spy to attack him, just for his comeback. But nothing happened, and the other simply walked by, apparently heading back to the base.

It seemed the spook was telling the truth.

He stood there for a few more seconds, following and listening to the soft sounds the spy made walking. He'd bet that if he hadn't lived alone and in the wild for so many years, always on alert, he'd never been able to hear the man move. The man was sneakier than some predators he'd found in the deserts of Australia. He'd try not to keep his back turned for long. When he couldn't make out the footstep sounds anymore he adjusted his hat once again, sighing.

Finding the Soldier would just be a bloody pain in the arse. And talking to him would even be worse. He was completely insane, spewing barbarities in every waking moment. The man only seemed to calm down at night, when in bed. And even that was strange. He'd just take Spy's word for it. No need to bother himself, he was pretty sure Spy wouldn't want problems with Soldier in the first place.

Deciding to fetch some supplies before returning to his van, he made his way towards BLU base slowly, with no great desire to go there in the first place. He rarely went inside. Those rare times he went were simply for some briefing from Soldier, who took it upon himself to repeat everything the Administrator said, or when supplies ran out. Given that, he didn't really know the works of the place, and if he wasn't careful he'd end up lost for a while, usually saved by Pyro, who seemed to lurk every single damn corridor of the base. Not that it happened a lot.

He finally got to the base, going through the main gate quickly, heading for the main building.

This time he planned on going straight for the kitchen, no detours. He just needed to keep following the arrows and he'd be fine...

"Mhhmh?"

"Crikey!" he practically jumped on the nearest wall. He was so stuck in his own thoughts that he didn't even hear the loud noise of the Pyro's rubber suit as his teammate moved towards him. His heart was practically beating out his chest. He pressed his hand over it and gave the other a polite salute. "Hello mate."

"Muhh mhhh agmmh?" Pyro moved his head to the side while he tal- mumbled.

"Nope, not lost yet" he added with a smile. Okay, so he admitted it, he did get lost a lot. No sense of orientation what so ever. Really a bad thing for a huntsman like him. "Actually jus' going to the kitchen. Ran out of food back in the van."

"Mmhhay!" he added cheerfully and turned around a corner, disappearing from his sight.

And he got distracted pretty easily too, he thought to himself. Pyro wasn't silent at all. How spies usually got burned was beyond him.

Quickly recovering from his little encounter, Sniper made his way toward the kitchen again.

After a couple of run ins with the same supply closet he finally got to the common area, next to which the kitchen was located. It was unusually silent for this time of the day, so probably no one was eating. That was good, no needless conversation, and no time wasted.

"Well, let me see..." He needed to check if there was some coffee left, first of all. And was relieved to see that there were still quite a few bags on the counter. The amount of it that was consumed per day was simply stupid. He drank a lot, he admitted, but unless heavy had a leak of some kind, and needed a constant refill, there was no justification for the disappearance of it. Honestly, one of them, Scout, didn't even drink coffee.

"Thank god he doesn't" he mumbled. The kid couldn't possibly get more annoying than he already is.

Still, he knew that there was something in the kitchen that no one would probably touch. His vegemite.

He'd keep it in the van, but the heat would probably ruin it. And well, you weren't Australian if you didn't have vegemite, after all.

So it was with great annoyance and surprise that he found it gone from the conserves cabinet. Just who would take it? Could they have eaten it? There was a lot of diversity in the team so maybe someone actually liked eating the paste?

Mood turned sour now, Sniper looked for his food for a few more minutes, until finally sitting in one of the kitchen benches, running his hands through his hair.

"Bloody friggn' day..."

Just then he started hearing steps, coming from the corridor. It seemed the team was returning for dinner, and he was still stuck in looking for supplies.

It's not that he doesn't like talking to his teammates. Okay, so he doesn't actually find it pleasant. But he always felt as if they talked behind his back as soon as he left. That, and he felt like a thief, taking food from the kitchen when they saw him. Technically it was his food too, but having it in his van meant that no one else would get to eat it.

The first to enter was the soldier, screaming commands at the rest of his followers. It seemed, that somehow - and it was in these moments that Sniper was glad he ate alone - that it was Scout's turn to cook.

After the man glared at him for a few seconds, never shutting up, he turned and started yelling at Engineer. He didn't even bother to try and understand what the other had said.

Sniper took this chance to grab the nearest coffee bean bag and some bread, not really wanting to stay in the room any longer. He avoided the rest of the team coming in, and turned towards the other side of the corridor, only to go against something. Or someone.

"You again..." he frowned. Why did the Spook walk around cloaked in base?

He man didn't seem happy to see him either, went he finally turned visible. He didn't even look him in the eye, simply walking around him and entering the kitchen.

That was just fine, Sniper didn't want to waste anymore time either.


End file.
